Video: Elephone P9000 unboxing

To follow up our Elephone P9000 first impressions, here’s our Elephone P9000 unboxing and hands on video.

The Elephone P9000 is the first Mediatek Helio P10 phone we have managed to get our hands on so far, and the first Mediatek phone we have used running Android 6.0! If these details weren’t enough this phone offers a nice lightweight design, wonderful 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display, 4GB RAM, NFC, and even wireless charging.

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You can read my Elephone P9000 first impressions here, and I plan to test the 13 mega-pixel camera and run benchmarks in the coming days.

If you have any questions about the Elephone P9000 please let me know in the comments below.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

- - balcobomber25
    February 8, 2016
    I don’t care if they make good or bad products but lately it’s seems like the only reviews you guys do are from Elephone and the like.
    - - balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        Yash said he finished the Gionee E8 review weeks ago, that has yet to appear. I am not the only one to notice this either. Seems like brands like Elephone and Ulefone get more press than anyone else these days
        February 8, 2016
        Yup waiting for it too.
        Elephone and Ulefone have launched new phones so they have been reviewed. Don’t see the issue. I know you don’t like Elephone, but there are plenty of people who do, plus their latest products are actually good.
        
        balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        There are plenty of people that like other brands too. My problem with Elephone is they haven’t made a great device and often times screw their customers over. If they change I will be the first to admit they do. But there are phones you did hands on reviews of weeks ago with no reviews yet. If you need help with reviews there are plenty of people here who will help you.
        
        Inti Energia
        February 8, 2016
        The insinuation that the site has some sort of hidden sponsorship deal with Elephone is uncalled for in my opinion. The fact is that they have released a boatload of phones lately and I assume that they send them around to all of the review sites which I am sure Xiaomi does not do as it is a more established brand and has no need.
        As for Elephone all you have to do is go to the various Amazon sites and read the reviews of their latest phones by the buyers. Some people are thrilled and rave about the price/quality ratio, but there are a disturbing number of buyers who have had to return the phone and in some cases two times (!) due to serious defects. So there are obvious quality control issues.
        I assume that they are careful about the phones they provide for reviews, so it is unlikely that Andi has received one of their many lemons. So, even if he will issue a sparkling review, it is a big risk to assume that an Elephone that you will buy will be of the same quality. And if vou have to return it to your Chinese reseller in China for exchange or repairs, good luck!
        
        balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        That wasn’t the insinuation at all. The comment was more tongue in cheek than anything else and Andi knows I have defended the site when others have made that comment. It was more questioning why many reviews are missing and/or so far behind while others seem to be pushed out very quickly. A lot of loyal and long time readers to this site besides myself are noticing it as well. I know of quite a few readers that are delaying purchases on models waiting for a review, that has yet to come.
        
        China fan
        February 8, 2016
        Been seeing this for a while now on gizchina. It used to be the place to get an honest opinion on phones and now it is all elephone this and ulephone that. Like has been mentioned alot of phones have been received and open boxed and then don’t get a review. As a reader for about 5 years now it’s disappointing and wouldn’t surprise me if royaltys are being paid to the site for reviews. It wouldn’t be the first time elephone have used shady practice’s or shills online.
        
        Bailey
        February 8, 2016
        It does not matter that Xiaomi or Meizu are more established than other i have been coming here for ages because i wont to see top Chinese phones reviewed plus new phone makers that are up and coming. So even if the top brands sell millions they should still get a review. Elephone has had alot of press on this site lately and it would appear not a day goes by when they are mentioned. I have to echo balcobomber25 on this they are not known for quality although that seems to be changing and they are not known for good customer service so why the hype
        
        February 8, 2016
        Meizu Metal is another I’m also waiting for. Vibe X3 I want to finish the review, but still on the Chinese ROM as there still isnt a ROOT solution for getting Google services. Waiting for the Indian ROM to be released.
        jimberkas
        February 8, 2016
        would love a Meizu Metal review!
    - February 8, 2016
      Some brands send phones out, some don’t. I don’t think Andi is going to buy every single phone he reviews, do you? I have a blog myself and certain companies send me stuff, and I choose whether I want to review it. But I can’t review stuff I don’t physically have in front of me? Keep up the good work Andi, GizChina is my favourite website find of 2016 so far.
      - balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        When there are hands on and unboxings done that means they have the phone for review 😉
        
        February 8, 2016
        And the sky is blue, water is clear, blood is red etc…I don’t know what your comment added?
        balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        All of the phones I listed as not being reviewed yet, have all had an initial hands on.
        February 8, 2016
        Ah I see. Well, I guess there’s two ways of looking at it. Maybe these companies pay well for a review. You might not like that. However, if Andi still gives it an honest review (because he does point negative things out usually (like the unhelpful non-micro USB C wireless charger) then to me that’s fine.
        Joel Adames
        February 9, 2016
        Hey @balcoB in between this lines of this gentleman lyes a hidden tressure.
      - Joel Adames
        February 9, 2016
        But what then when you say you have the review almost ready and then go and dissapear on it?
        
        February 9, 2016
        Well it’s up to him isn’t it? I mean it’s not like you’re not paying to view this website and he owes you something.
        Joel Adames
        February 9, 2016
        No he doesn’t and no o don’t and that’s what makes us all able to DISCUSS on the subject ☺.
        But really Yash said some 4 or 5 weeks ago, for example, the review of the Elife E8 was almost done… m.i.a.
        Do you get the point now???
        Same to a blubloo device, (although that one deserved it ??) and some other devices, but you should be getting the point.
        One they will post something dear to you and we will welcome you to our side of the history. ?
  - Faisal Shaharyar
    February 8, 2016
    Yes they have made a good product; hey Andi – whats the difference between this one and the lite version. because there a $50 price difference as well
    - Marco Lancaster
      February 8, 2016
      Specs saying, the Lite has no NFC, no wireless or fast charge, also seems to not have Fingerprint…
      - Faisal Shaharyar
        February 10, 2016
- Joel Adames
  February 9, 2016
  I remember DEIRDRE dearly… Not that a miss her thoug . Hehehehe hope she is having a nicer time somewhere.

Tajwar
February 8, 2016
Thank god no bezels…
Omer
February 8, 2016
This one looks pretty good. Nice to see it has no on-screen buttons (anymore? I believe it still had them in a video I saw a while ago). So still not weighing your phones huh, Andy? I believe you mention ‘lightweight’ around 20 times combined in this review and in the “1st impressions” post, but no mention of the actual weight as far as I could see. Is it possible for you to weight it? “Lightweight” is a subjective term, so only meaningful to the person that utters that word.

Riccardo Benzoni
February 8, 2016
the first elephone phone I can actually say it looks attractive. Should really improve the design of the back tho, The rattling on buttons doesn’t sound promising, build quality seems the same.
We’ll see,
- Joel Adames
  February 9, 2016
  Yes it really looks good, then again so much so for the rattling, it still an Elephone hahaha

Bility
February 8, 2016
Finally!!! Andi has done an unboxing on camera because every unboxing video that I have seen so far from Andi was a second unboxing because the box had been open already off camera and to come on camera and say “unboxing” I feel was a misnomer, the proper words should have been “second unboxing”.
- Joel Adames
  February 9, 2016
  Hahahshshsaahahshah . Wapa! Spot on. I always felt the same too but forgot to write it hehehehe.

Ruby
February 8, 2016
I have yet to come across an Elephone device that was loved by the overall majority of it’s users. But who knows, maybe Elephone finally got it right with this one. With such a poor track record though, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Omer
February 8, 2016
I know many of you won’t have an issue with stuff like this, but it would annoy the hell out of me:
http://members.casema.nl/arzuomer/P9000_01.jpg
- balcobomber25
  February 8, 2016
  That is the long standing quality issues with Elephone. They make good looking devices and they have the specs but the quality has always been questionable.
  - Omer
    February 8, 2016
    Yeah, I know what you mean. Anyway, a colleague of mine is waiting on his P9000 to arrive, so we’ll see how the build quality is once it arrives.
- VMortens
  February 8, 2016
  It’s still only Elephone – it will be a long time till they really upgrade the quality.
- Riccardo Benzoni
  February 8, 2016
  yes, on a unibody phone it’s something you should never see, adding the rattling of the volume keys I’d assume build quality hasn’t moved much from it’s recent past, which isn’t known for stellar build quality… Specs and look (frontal side) are pretty much there, but it’s not enough for me to trust them yet.
  - Omer
    February 8, 2016
    My thoughts exactly. What I find peculiar though is that Andi doesn’t seem to notice these things (Or maybe he does, but doesn’t care, I dunno). There was another phone he reviewed recently (forgot the brand), and it had misalignments in the border which some of us clearly saw, but he couldn’t. Weird.

VMortens
February 8, 2016
Recently it’s only Elephone, Ulephone, Oukitel, etc. What happend to better recognised brandslike Honor, Xiaomi, etc and their possible bestsellers?
Redmi 3 not being even mentioned here even tho it’s one of the most interesting phones recently released in the mid-range. Honor 7 was not even tested here (fantastic phone for it’s current price). What’s going on? Are you guys getting some new sponsors who dictate this selection of brands and models for testing?
- realjjj
  February 8, 2016
  - VMortens
    February 8, 2016
    224$ for CN version you call very high? Few weeks already it’s available for this price on JD.
    - realjjj
      February 8, 2016
      Yeah even that is too high.
      The SoC is rather not great and less than the MTK P10 and x10. Also, ,while i haven’t looked into the H7 specifically , Huawei has problems getting good wifi perf and often uses rather slow NAND.
      There are many much better options out there.
      - balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        The Kirin 935 and the X10 are just about equal in terms of actual performance. I’ve used a few Kirin phones never had any wifi issues. The Honor 7 isn’t a phone for me but it’s not a bad value overall. Especially for someone like you who loves SD storgae.
        
        realjjj
        February 8, 2016
        Kirin had some complications on the memory side and the GPU is weaker than the x10 while also throttling so it’s clearly inferior. Even if it was equal , the pricing for the H7 wouldn’t be great as the initial comment claims. You got lots of newer options and older ones. The newer ones are well known, older ones could be things like MX4 Pro at 180$ or some older devices with SD801.
        
        balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        The GPU in the X10 has a slight advantage over the 935, in actual execution the X10, 935 and SD808 are all pretty even when it comes to performance. Most people won’t notice the difference between the 3. There’s always newer options for a cheaper price and there are newer phones coming out. But someone who needs a phone today the Honor 7 can be a great phone. $224 is not prices really high for a premium phone from a premium brand.
        
        realjjj
        February 8, 2016
        lol the 808 as borked as it is has a hell of a lot faster GPU.
        As for calling the H7 premium ROFL. Folks would be better off with the Note 2,3 ,3 Pro , Meizu Metal and so on. They can call it high end, but that device has never been that.
        
        balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        We did a test in my office between my MX5 a Mi4c and a P8, they were near identical in actual usage Again this isn’t benchmarks, it’s actual performance. One phone might do better in one area but worse in others. Overall they all offered comparable performance that most people would never notice a difference.
        Good build quality, good battery life, good display, good brand name, good camera. I would call that premium in my book.
        
        realjjj
        February 8, 2016
        You have no idea what a benchmark means apparently, just like 99% of the users that love to say moronic things like “benchmarks are not everything”.
        A benchmark measures something, you can measure anything as long as you use the right benchmark. You can’t determine the color of a cow with a kitchen scale but you can do so with the right tool.
        You comparing the phones by eyeballing them is a benchmark too, a rudimentary and unreliable one. Looking at load times or browsing (likely what you did) is a very poor benchmark for performance.
        Terms like “nearly identical ” mean nothing especially when much cheaper phones are nearly identical too, except faster lol.
        Now , i must ask, do you hate the original poster, you want him to make the wrong purchase? Or is it, as always, you just keep going no matter the evidence?
        
        balcobomber25
        February 8, 2016
        You determine the color of cow by looking at not by running a test that determines what the cow is capable of in a controlled environment.
        It is funny that you think you know what we did. We actually did a full rundown that included a number of tests, apps, games, and benchmarks. We created a grading scale for each one in the end they all finished within a few points of each other. Nice try tho!
        BTW: Benchmarks are not everything. I love the people who think benchmarks mean more than actual usage. I must ask do you always think that every cell phone buyer has the same exact needs and views as you do? Do you want people to miss out on good phones just because they don’t fit your personal needs? Or is it you always have to be right and can’t accept that people have different views than you?
        
        realjjj
        February 9, 2016
        You just fully fail….
        You also keep attacking my preferencee, problem is that i’ve told you repeatedly that my personal preferences are not relevant and i almost never disclose them to begin with. It’s not about personal preferences , mine or yours, but you don’t seem capable to understand the concept.
        As for this conversation, it was about value, not product design choices. It’s simple and even you know full well that the device is not good value, you just can’t accept defeat.
        Got to point out that you can’t determine the color of a cow by looking at it, he human eye doesn’t have the precision to make that measurement in an accurate way but i love that you thought that using the term “controlled environment” makes you look knowledgeable.
        
        VMortens
        February 9, 2016
        Geez man. All of your posts are soaked with your personal preferences and lack of objectivism at all.
        In the other post you claim Honor 7 is horribly expensive, now you say it’s just not a good value. Well, if that’s not a personal opinion then what is?
        Very good quality build, premium materials, v.good camera, mature and good (eventually) OS, ability to use the SD card for app installs coming with the OS natively and all that at a price of 224$ you call not a good value. Only reason for that is as you claim: “Kirin had some complications on the memory side and the GPU is weaker than the x10” – hell of a weaker one it is indeed, like the X10 had a strong one anyway. It obviously isn’t a phone for heavy gamers, got me there – I just don’t recall saying anything like that. Benchmarks … Yeah man, no better way of determining phone’s value like a good old antutu score.
        Also, the argument of Honor 8 coming, as an argument against Honor 7 leaves me with a polite smile on my face. It’s not just the matter of fact that 8 will be costly as hell when it eventually arrives, and the fact that it isn’t even close to releasing, oh no, not just this… EoT my friend.
        balcobomber25
        February 9, 2016
        Problem is you can’t understand that your preference is just your preference and doesn’t apply to everyone. I love that you think everything you say makes you look knowledgeable.
  - Bailey
    February 8, 2016
    The Honor 7 is not priced high
  - Joel Adames
    February 9, 2016
    He could ask for a borrowed unit, is not like every review they do the device is really new. This is one of the few reviews that the product was still in the sealed box for the time of the recording.
fido futte
February 8, 2016
Antutu benchmark for P9000 is only around 40.000 point- very disapointing- much slower than Helio X10

fido futte
February 8, 2016
i think the X20 or P20 phone is better choise
- E8hffff
  February 8, 2016
  Months away if not 6 months.
- balcobomber25
  February 8, 2016
  Have to agree with Hexa, neither of those SoC’s is available to them right now. Elephone isn’t a big enough name to be the launch device for the X20 (Meizu will probably get that honor). And the P20 won’t be on devices till at least June.
Kla
February 8, 2016
After I saw this video now I’m overwhelmed. I was very interested on elephone vowney 4gb ram version, but now I don´t know what to buy :/ Can any one help me to decide? Is the difference between the screens in vowney and p9000 visually visible? What about the quality of photos in vowney and p9000 are here difference visible? I mean the p9000 have a verny nice design, but vowney is more advanced technical. Now it´s for me very tough to decide :/, help, please! :):):)
- MattD
  February 8, 2016
  Wait for p9000 review, compare it to vowney’s review, read opinions on the forums and then decide… Don’t get fooled by the spec sheets: vowney seems better in theory, but in real life usage it isn’t (camera has many mpxs, but is not that good… 2k screens are just a waste of power).
  However, to be totally honest: ditch both and buy redmi note 3 pro instead

jimberkas
February 8, 2016
don’t trust Elephone yet. hope they up their game.
now, when will there be news on the Zuk Z2???
Manos
February 8, 2016
oh that bezels is half of my Zenfone 2!!! This new MTK has good GPU? If you look at the iPhones have very good GPU all the models…

E8hffff
February 8, 2016
Elephone also released a video on the M3, which in my opinion is an ugly phone due to the placing of the camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9prp4YQ-00c
- balcobomber25
  February 8, 2016
  What is wrong with the camera placement? That’s one of the two standard places for it (the other being top center). This device reminds me of a Vivo/Oppo design.
- JudikJ7
  February 9, 2016
  I think that the placement is not bad however the shape is ugly if it were rounded (like the M3 lite), it will be fine
Average Man
February 8, 2016
I had this exact model on pre-order but cancelled it after seeing LOTS of comments about Elephone’s past performance (sloppy ROMs, lack of updates etc). I kind of regret it now after seeing this much, but the full review will confirm.
- February 9, 2016
  Yup they have a poor reputation, but they seem to be sorting themselves out. The P9000 is nice so far, but we still don’t know about updates etc
hans
February 8, 2016
That looks surprisingly good
Roy
February 9, 2016
As always: good hardware, horrible software. P6000 and 7000 had so many problems. Elephone can’t be trusted and it’s a shame Gizchina sold their soul to them.
- Stef
  February 9, 2016
  I find non stock android horrible most often than not … Oh well each to his own I guess

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